BanglaCricket Article

Bangladesh have completed their most successful World Cup campaign by reserving the 7th position in the rank among 16 participating teams. Although the wins in the World Cup 2007 have raised Bangladesh's profile in the world arena, mediocre performances in the other matches further exposed their inconsistency. The author looks into the world cup mission of Bangladesh with some representative numbers.

Bangladesh have completed their most successful World Cup campaign by reserving the 7th position in the rank among 16 participating teams. After knocking India out of the group stage from the so called "group of death", Bangladesh have managed to defeat South Africa in their Super Eights encounter at Guayana. While these two wins raised Bangladesh's profile in the world arena, mediocre performances in the other matches further exposed their inconsistency.

Bangladeshi bowlers have performed consistently throughout the tournament. They have shown significant improvements in both spin and pace departments. However, the batsmen failed to live up to the expectations with rather inconsistent performances. The top order batsmen often failed to deliver in crucial occasions leaving bowlers with almost nothing to defend. Whenever the batsmen managed to put some runs on the boards, bowlers took the oppositions to the wire and won the matches convincingly. The fielding of Bangladesh were average except matches against India and South Africa.

A review of the world cup performance of Bangladesh shows sharp contrasts between bowlers and batsmen. It also shows the usual mixing of best with the worst which Bangladesh is doing consistently over the last couple of years.

A mini review of Bangladesh's World Cup 2007 mission in numbers

5 : The winning margin in wickets against India at group stage match in Trinidad.

216 : Total World Cup 2007 runs for Mohammad Ashraful, who has set the new record for most runs made by a Bangladeshi batsman in any world cup. It includes 27 fours and a six.

28 : Number of wickets taken by the spin trio of Bangladesh.

5.16 : Average of Shahriar Nafees in World Cup 2007. He managed to score 29 runs in 6 innings.

3.85 : Bowling economy of Syed Rasel with his revolutionary medium pace. He took 8 wickets at an average of 29.85.

67 : The winning margin in runs against South Africa in the Super Eights match in Guayana.

318 : Highest run scored against Bangladeshi bowling line up. Sri Lanka piled 318-4 on the board in the group stage match.

13 : Number of wickets taken by Abdur Razzak and is the new record for most wickets by a Bangladeshi bowler in any World Cup.

84.76 : Strike rate of Aftab Ahmed. He scored 128 runs with an average of 14.22.

25 : Number of boundaries hit by Tamim Iqbal. Only Ashraful has hit more boundaries (27) than him.

39.00 : Strike rate of Javed Omar Belim in this World Cup. He scored 55 runs in his 3 innings.

112 : Lowest total by Bangladesh in World Cup 2007 (against Sri Lanka).

3 : Number of 6's hit by 3 Bangladeshi batsman in the World Cup. The big hitters are Sakib, Aftab, and Mashrafee.

87 : Highest individual score by any Bangladeshi batsman in any World Cup. Ashraful scored a match winning 87 against South Africa.

4-38 : Best Bangladeshi bowling figure in World Cup. Mashrafe Mortaza took 4 wickets for 38 runs in the crucial group match against India.

56* : Highest score in a World Cup debut by any Bangladeshi batsman. Mushfiqur Rahim remained unbeaten on 56 to guide Bangladesh home against India. Sakib seconds the list with 53 runs in his World Cup debut against India.

9 : Number of matches Bangladesh has played in World Cup 2007.

156.25 : Strike rate of Mashrafe Mortaza in his little cameo (25 off 16 balls) against South Africa.

46 : The number of opposition wickets taken by Bangladeshi bowlers.

251 : The highest total made by Bangladesh in any world cup matches (against South Africa).

About the author(s): Khondaker Mirazur Rahman spends as much time on BanglaCricket as on his Post-Doctoral research on Gene Targeted Drug Design. Like a true scientist his articles are all well researched. He goes by the nick "Miraz" on our forums and is also a BanglaCricket editor.